A teenage Hastings dairy robber has been sentenced to three years and three months' jail — the son of hard-working, church-going parents, but the one who had "run off the rails".
That was the summary of Judge Bridget Mackintosh in Napier District Court yesterday as she sentenced Atarangi Moataane, of Flaxmere, for his part in the late-afternoon May 28 robbery of Palm Store, on the corner of Frederick and Konini Sts.
Aged 18 at the time of the robbery, Moataane had become involved in a street gang in the Flaxmere area, and his parents hope that when he is released from jail he will return to Tonga and live a good life.
Two men wearing balaclavas and hoods entered the shop about 4.30pm armed with a screwdriver and confronted the woman at the counter.
As the shopkeeper fled to the rear of the premises the robbers grabbed the till and escaped, going to a nearby property where they pulled the till apart, took the cash and threw the broken cash machine out the window.